Index | Parent Index | Build Freedom: Archive

General Success Tips

Mike Goldstein - Co-Founder, IDENICS - 8/3/04:
"I have had a close working relationship with Frederick Mann for over 10 years. He is one of the most prolific writers I have ever known. What's more, aside from his publishing volume, there is the high quality of his content. His writings have always made an enormous impact on readers, providing them with valuable information that they can use to actually improve their lives.

Frederick Mann is not just a success; he is a phenomenon. I have worked with many dynamic people in my career and Frederick is easily in the top five. He is one of the most intelligent and insightful people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing."

Contents:

The following series of mini-articles were originally published - amongst others - on the "BigBooster" main and business home-pages - one of Frederick Mann's "money-making" websites.


Our Mission

by Frederick Mann

I blamed my father...

When I was about 9 years old, my father tried to get me to play rugby. Having lived on a remote farm, before television, I had never seen a rugby game, nor even a rugby ball. I didn't even know that there were 2 teams and each team tried to beat the other.

My father bought me some rugby clothes and shoes, and took me to a game. I stepped onto the field, was told to play fullback and "stand there." I had no idea why the other kids were throwing the ball, ran around, tackled one another, etc. I just "stood there," not knowing what else to do. Eventually someone ran in my direction, carrying the ball. Someone else shouted, "Tackle him!" I didn't know what that meant, so I just "stood there." Now what?

The kid with the ball was much bigger than me. He ran straight at me, knocked me over, and continued on his way...

If my father had explained the game to me and taught me some "moves," I could have learned quickly to play rugby. Before taking me to a game, he could have bought me a rugby ball. He could have taught me "moves" such as catching the ball, running with the ball, passing the ball, holding on to the ball when tackled, kicking the ball, etc.

Any game like rugby can be broken down into "moves." A player can learn the moves and become good at executing the right moves at the right time.

I never learned to play rugby "with the big boys"... but I have learned a few things about making money on the Internet.

Any skill or activity -- like making money on the Internet or running your own business -- can be broken down into "moves." Individuals can learn the necessary or key "moves" to become more competent and actually make some money.

Many people trying to make money on the Internet or run their own business "don't know the moves" and "get knocked over" much of the time... losing precious time and money!

They may also flounder around, trying to use obsolete tools. Their marketing efforts often yield zero results.

A major emphasis is to identify the necessary or key "moves" and to identify or develop the means to enable readers to LEARN THE MOVES!

Our Mission is to provide you with the MOVES and the POWER TOOLS you need for your success!


Warren Buffet's Winning Strategy: "Find the Best Horses to Ride (or Best Cash Cows to Milk)!"

Warren Buffett: MBA Talk - Part 1, 9 min 52 sec, May 2007

Buffett's Brilliance:

  1. "Get one good idea a year and then ride it to its full potential." -- MBA Talk - Part 7 - 09:33
  2. "Our biggest mistakes were mistakes of ommission -- not taking action." -- MBA Talk - Part 6 - 08:29
  3. "Why smart people make dumb mistakes. You have to get rich only once. Blind spots." -- MBA Talk - Part 2 - 10:00
  4. "I've been extraordinarily lucky!" -- MBA Talk - Part 10 - 07:52

Find out How to Become Nearly as Lucky as Warren Buffett!


How to Get Your "Money Horses" (or "Cash Cows") Moving forward and toward Your Destination of Making Money!

A Most Powerful Success Principle? (See Powerful Success Principles!)

Have you seen the book by Al Ries & Jack Trout: HORSE SENSE: The Key to Success Is Finding a Horse to Ride?

Find a New Cash Cow! 5 min 36 sec - March 26, 2008

If you're interested in making money online, it may be useful to think in terms of a "Money Horse." You want to get on your Horse and then do the things that will move your Horse forward, making you money.

To get going you may have to spend some money. In a sense, this moves you backward, away from your destination. To make money you need to make more than you spend.

Programs that require just a one-time spend ("Horses" you feed once!) subject you to less risk. Many people join programs that require monthly spends. Many of them give up and drop out before they break through the barrier of earning more than they spend.

Some programs can be used by practically everybody trying to make money online. If you're already making money online, you can use these programs to expand your marketing and earn even more.

Program management often provides training on how to succeed with their program. You may find that all the training you might need to become successful can be found on this page and its links!

Practically everybody can take actions and learn from them. You can discover actions that work and improve them. You can stop doing what doesn't work and do more of what works.

In trying to make money online, you have experiences... and form conclusions (or hypotheses). Some of your conclusions may be mistaken. You can make many more wrong conclusions than right ones. It's possible to "dyslearn" from your experiences (move backward) -- you could become less capable of success over time.

There may be people you interact with who want you to fail for psychological reasons, including envy. They may try to "assist" you with wrong conclusions. You could use the Scientific Method to improve your hypotheses/conclusions.

As a "general success approach" you may want to check out Core Simpleology Courses:

Other Simpleology Products & Courses:

Because of "psychological factors", some people may sabotage their own success.


Rise Above Your Success Threshold!

The story of the Two Frogs is sometimes used to illustrate a most important Success Factor. In the basement of a French restaurant there are two frogs. There's a staircase with 8-inch-high stairs. A careless chef's assistant leaves the door to the basement open. So it's possible for the frogs to escape.

Frog #1 can easily jump 9 inches. So he jumps up the stairs, out the door, and escapes with his life. Frog #2 can only jump 7 inches. So he can't escape. He gets cooked for dinner and is eaten. Because he "operates below the 8-inch success threshold" he loses his life.

Probably about 98% of people trying to make money online have little or no success. If you're one of them, you're like Frog #2. As long as you remain a "7-Inch Frog" it's unlikely that you'll earn any significant money online. (Warning: Many "4-Inch Frogs" deceive themselves that they're "12-Inch Frogs!" Have you watched the American Idol TV song contest?)

Nevertheless, you may be fortunate in that only a small improvement may be required for you to become a "9-Inch Frog." If you're a "7-Inch Frog," you may find the resources on this page (and/or on the pages linked to) to enable you to quickly become a "9-Inch Frog"

If you're already a "9-Inch Frog," making considerable money online, you may experience some frustration because of all the "7-Inch Frogs" in your downlines who don't "produce the goods!" You may realize that you could earn a great deal more if more of your associates were to move above the "8-Inch Success Threshold."

The Most Important Skill that separates the "9-Inch Winners" from the "7-Inch Losers" is the Ability to Send "Interested Visitors" to a Website. By making the resources on this page available to people in your downlines, they can earn more money for themselves and increase your earnings as well. See also "How High the Success Threshold?"


Personal Development

During a TV appearance, legendary investor Warren Buffett was asked what he regarded as the most important thing people could do to become more successful. He said that you, yourself, are your own greatest asset; the more you invest in yourself, the better!

Online Success Giant Mike Dillard says: "Success is 90% mental (getting your head right), and 10% mechanical (executing the business)."

Consider Four Formulas (a "vehicle" is a "horse you ride" or a "cash cow you milk"):

#1: Bad Driver + Bad Vehicle = Crash

#2: Bad Driver + Good Vehicle = Crash

#3: Good Driver + Bad Vehicle = Crash

#4: Good Driver + Good Vehicle = Success!

So, to become successful at online moneymaking, you need to be a driver good enough to create a "Good Driver + Good Vehicle" solution.

Can you see that the Driver is the deciding factor? (A good driver can usually find a good vehicle! Also, a good driver knows that good vehicles can break down and/or go bad.)

GOOD NEWS! Every 2 seconds a new person joins the Internet community. Every 11 seconds someone tries to start a home-based business.

"BAD" NEWS! Typically, about 98% fail at making their home-based businesses profitable. It's bad news if you're one of the failing 98%.

It's GOOD NEWS if you're one of the successful 2% -- or you can quickly become one of the 2% -- because you can offer a solution to the 98% -- tens of millions of prospects!

GOOD NEWS!: We provide you with the "goodies" that enable you to join the ranks of the successful!

We've developed the FREE "Get-Real Success System" (GRSS) which may be the most powerful and effective way for most unsuccessful people to become successful!


Powerful Success Principles!

In general, it's quite presumptuous to pluck "success principles" out of thin air and then claim that they're "powerful." Typically, each "success guru" comes up with his/her own "magic 8 or 10 principles." Why don't all the "gurus" come up with the same principles that can be tested and agreed upon like the laws of physics or the rules of mathematics? How many "gurus" have done any research to establish that their "principles" actually work? How do they really know that their "principles" even work for themselves?

There could also be a "catch-22" problem. What if the skills you need to read a book and apply its ideas are the same skills required for success? If so, an unsuccessful person would not be able to read a "success" book and apply its ideas!

Our attempted solution to this dilemma is the FREE "Get-Real Success System" (GRSS).

#1. Be Responsible (for What You Can Control)!

#2. Utilize Your Time Productively!

#3. Get (Appropriately) Real!

#4. Pay the Price (to Rise above the Success Threshold)!

#5. Find a (Good) Horse to Ride!

#6. Get Lucky!

#7. Get Unstuck (from Whatever is Holding You Back)!

#8. Increase Your Personal Power!

CAUTION: You may suffer from one or more "Make-or-Break Issues" (MBIs) that you may need to handle first, before you attempt anything else to become more successful. Most self-improvement books, tapes, workshops, etc, are a waste of time and money for most people -- unless they handle their MBIs first. Handling MBIs first opens the door to success -- which may otherwise remain closed!

#1. Be Responsible (for What You Can Control)!

Whenever you find yourself blaming others or factors outside yourself for any "lack of success" you experience, you may want to examine your level of responsibility. Whenever you "incorrectly assign cause" to anything other than yourself, you tend to "surrender your power." It's important to "distinguish between what you can and can't control."

#2. Utilize Your Time Productively!

Consider that your TIME may be your most important asset. Utilize it well. Don't waste it. You can never recover lost time. (One way to waste time is to read "success books" that don't work for you!) See Maximize Your Time Usage!

#3. Get (Appropriately) Real!

Warren Buffett may be an important example of someone who operates in a manner that can be described as "appropriately real." If his main goal is to make money, then he certainly acts "realistically" to achieve his goal. The "appropriately" refers to what Buffett considers relevant and irrelevant when making decisions. A significant part of Buffett's wealth has come from his Coca-Cola holdings. Does Buffett ever ask: "Would people be healthier drinking water instead of Coke (the "juice of the gods")?"

When interacting with others, you may need to take into account whatever "unrealities" they may harbor. For example, if their philosophy, religion, and/or politics are different from yours, then they obviously need to get real... but it may not be a good idea to tell them! This has to do with getting appropriately real.

#4. Pay the Price (to Rise above the Success Threshold)!

In general, someone who operates above the success threshold tends to succeed; while someone operating below the success threshold tends to fail. To succeed there may be a "PRICE TO PAY." The price may include investing time, money, and effort to overcome whatever has been holding you back. You may have to acquire knowledge and skills. You may have to improve your Thinking Skills. You may have to overcome emotional and/or psychological difficulties.

If you're not willing to "pay the price for success" and actually pay it, the success you desire may elude you. It may be worth looking over this entire page to identify items that may be part of the price you need to pay in order to achieve the success you seek.

To improve your thinking skills for greater success, see the numerous other articles and reports at Build Freedom. Also see Think Right Now - "Burn The Thoughts, Beliefs and Attitudes of the Happiest, Most Effective People Into Your Mind and You Will Feel How They Feel, Do What They Do and Get The Same Results They Get!"

#5. Find a (Good) Horse to Ride!

Quotes from HORSE SENSE: The Key to Success Is Finding a Horse to Ride by Al Ries & Jack Trout:

"The purpose of this book is to shake you out of your concentration on yourself. We think you need to open your mind to the outside world. You need to search for success outside of yourself. This book will describe some of the people, places, things, and ideas where you can find it.

Losers look inside themselves for the key to success when success is all around them, needing only an open mind and a keen eye.

Winners look to others to make them successful...

If you wanted to be Vice President of the United States at the age of 41, would you have spent four years in college drinking beer, playing golf, and getting grades of Cs and Ds? Dan Quayle did... Dan Quayle didn't make Dan Quayle Vice President of the United States at the age of 41. George Bush did.

Tom Peters echos the same idea: "I don't like the whole notion of career planning. I've never had a formula, never had a life plan. I've taken advantage of luck when it came along." And he adds, "Luck is 98 percent of the deal."

...One thing Mr. Trump left out of his book was the critical, make-or-break moment in his life, the moment when he turned to his father, Fred Trump, and asked: "Hey, Dad, how about $50 million?"

...You,ll do much, much better in life if you look outside yourself and find a horse to ride."

#6. Get Lucky!

Note what Warren Buffett says about luck.

I (Frederick Mann) used to reject the idea of "luck" out of hand. That started changing when I read the book Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. (He's also the author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.)

Then I "dug out" a book on luck by Richard Wiseman, which I'd bought a few years ago, but hadn't read. To my surprise I found that Wiseman had studied luck scientifically.

I now suspect that luck may be one of the most important success factors for many people. Just learn to get lucky!

Actually, it's more involved than that. You may need to prepare and set things up so you can "take advantage of luck" when opportunities -- like this website! -- become available to you. In Change Your Luck: The Scientific Way To Improve Your Life!, Dr. Richard Wiseman provides four Principles and 12 Subprinciples:

However... because of one or more "Make-or-Break Issues" (MBIs), it may be difficult for you to take advantage of opportunities when they become available to you. You may need to handle your MBIs first!

#7. Get Unstuck (from Whatever is Holding You Back)!

If you're experiencing less success than you desire or think you deserve, then you may want to consider the possibility that you're stuck in certain habits (or patterns) of thinking and behavior that prevent or sabotage your success. The most effective and efficient way to get unstuck may be to contact Mike Goldstein for a FREE telephone consultation.

Make-or-Break Issues (MBIs)

The idea of "Make-or-Break Issue" (MBI) may be important for some people. If your car's engine breaks down, you need to fix the engine to get your car running again. Anything else you might do to improve your car won't make it run. You have to fix the engine first! Such a broken engine is an example of an MBI ("Make-or-Break Issue"). If you get a new paint job for your car, while the engine remains broken, the new paint won't make your car run. That's the essence. An MBI is something you need to fix first.

One model for becoming more successful is to acquire more knowledge and skills -- to learn. However, an important principle is that MBIs tend to override and nullify positives. An MBI can be so severe that no matter what else you do to become more successful, you will fail until you overcome the MBI.

Suppose you have a "procrastination habit." As soon as you try to do something you find "uncomfortable" or "boring", you put it off until tomorrow when you'll hopefully feel refreshed and energetic... So you never get around to doing it! Until you overcome your procrastination habit, everything else you try to become more successful might be a waste of time, effort, and money! It's an MBI that needs to be handled first!

Other examples of possible MBIs for some people are Depression and/or Helplessness, Fear of Rejection, Apathy, Self-Sabotage Patterns, incompetence, negativity, excusitis, having a victim mentality, lack of persistence, and some further examples below.

From interacting with tens of thousands of people trying to make money online, I've come to the conclusion that about 98% don't succeed very well. What if most of them don't succeed because they're held back by one or more MBIs. I don't recall any of the "success books" I've read saying that there might be one crucial thing I needed to fix before I could make any progress toward success! Maybe that's one reason why most "success books" don't work for most people.

The person who says "I can't ..." (sell things / recruit people / do ...) is like a car with a broken engine. A potential cure for this condition is the "Why-Can-Do Booster."

Another MBI might be called the "Status Barrier." In order to feel OK about themselves, some people pretend that they know more, understand more, and are more competent than they really are. They pretend to have a higher status than they really have. This "false status" prevents people from asking questions (admitting ignorance), learning, understanding, and becoming more competent. An excellent book on the topic: Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton.

Mediocrity may be an MBI for some. There may be a hill or mountain to climb to rise above the success threshold. It may be vital to work with a Buddy or Coach to become more competent.

Some people may remain stuck in mediocrity because they Fear Looking Stupid. They don't ask questions. For some, the only way to rise up from mediocrity to competence is to ask "stupid" questions!

Denial may be an important MBI for some. If they deny their mediocrity, what will ever persuade them to become responsible enough to take the steps to become more competent? What can make them realize that they need to "pay the price" to become more competent.

If you know people who have been trying for some time to make money online without success, then you can be sure that they've been "unlucky" and/or "stuck in mediocrity" -- particularly if they've been "blaming others or factors outside themselves."

If you've watched the early stages of any American Idol (TV singing contest) season, you may have noticed how many contestants were mediocre singers. You may have noticed some denying their mediocrity and blaming the judges. Denying their mediocrity can't make them better singers!

#8. Increase Your Personal Power!

Power can be defined as the ability to do useful work. Your personal power can be regarded as your ability to take the actions that produce the results you desire.

An argument can be made that Personal Power should be the #1 Success Principle. Looking over the first 7 success principles may lead you to see them all as Elements of Personal Power.

Personal power has to do with achieving the results you desire. Isn't that the same as Success?

There are two basic approaches to increasing personal power or becoming more successful:

  1. What "positives" should I add to my life?
  2. What "negatives" should I remove from my life?

A make-or-break issue (MBI) can be regarded as a "negative" that keeps you stuck and nullifies your attempts to add "positives" to your life. E.g., procrastination. If you've lost your ability to learn, or it's been greatly reduced, then it could be an MBI that needs to be fixed first.

There may be One Factor that constrains you more than anything else. Identifying and improving this one factor may provide you with greater "benefits per effort" than anything else. Google: "problem solving techniques"; "theory of constraints"; "root cause analysis"; five-by-five why's; "barrier analysis"; "causal factor analysis"; "liebig's law"; triz; "psychological inertia." You may find a great deal on how to apply such methods in business, but rather little on how individuals can apply them to their personal lives. Why do you think this might be?

Realize that you might have blind spots that prevent you from seeing what constrains you most. Ask yourself: "What am I missing?"; "What haven't I noticed?" (Listen to Buffett on blind spots.)

Key questions: What constrains me most? What should I focus on improving that will increase my personal power and success most quickly and to the greatest degree?

Another possible way to find out what's holding you back is to ask someone who knows you reasonably well to tell you.

Strategy and Tactics

You need an overall strategy that makes it possible for you to earn money, and to increase your earnings over time. If you're operating below your "success threshold," you need to find out what's holding you back and overcome it.

As an individual, you need a viable strategy to progress from where you are to where you want to go. (Jumping from program to program with the hope that you'll "find the right one that will make you rich," is most likely not a viable strategy.)

Asking the question: WHAT'S MISSING? may help you develop a viable strategy.

You may also want to ask: What's the single most important skill related to X (whatever - e.g. online moneymaking)? You may want to have a look at the Get-Real Success System (GRSS) to identify it.

A viable strategy can also be developed by formulating a "General Success Formula," for example:

  1. What can I control and what can't I control?
  2. What's the best I can do right now?
  3. What difference will it make?
  4. Do it!
  5. What results did I produce by doing it?
  6. What can I learn from what I did and the results produced?
  7. What can I do differently, or what else can I do?
  8. How can I improve what I do?
  9. What should I not do?
  10. What's my biggest constraint (the factor that holds me back most)?
  11. Go to step 1.

(Acknowledgment: The above formula was partially inspired by Glen Brink.)


The Promise and the Price

According to "MLM lore": Mark Yarnell, a minister in a small town, was in serious financial trouble, about to lose his car and home. Fortunately, a veteran MLM sponsor introduced him to network marketing. The sponsor told Mark The Promise: "With this business you can set yourself financially free in 1-3 years."

The sponsor also told Mark The Price: "To succeed, you'll have to face and conquer 4 major enemies."

Mark said, "It's a deal!" He then invited 200 members of his congregation to his house to watch a video. 80 said, "Not interested." Mark had just encountered Enemy #1: REJECTION. He thought, "No problem, my sponsor warned me about that. I still have 120 people coming over!"

Guess what? 50 people didn't show up. Enemy #2: MEDIOCRITY. Mark thought, "No problem, my sponsor warned me about that also. I still got 70 people to watch the video."

Guess what? 57 people said, "Not interested." Enemy #3: APATHY. Undaunted, Mark thought, "No problem." 13 people signed up.

Guess what? 12 people dropped out of the business within 2 months. Enemy #4: ATTRITION.

This left Mark with just one serious associate. But Mark had paid "THE PRICE" and he succeeded. This single associate earned Mark over $10,000 per month.

Bill Britt, one of the most successful distributors in a well-known international company, was interviewed on the TV program 20/20. The show did a feature story on the company. They spent 10 minutes interviewing several distributors who whined and complained about their lack of success. During the last minute of the show, Mr. Britt was asked in front of his palatial home, "This business obviously worked for you. What's your secret?"

Bill replied, "There's no secret. I simply showed the plan 1200 times. 900 said no, and only 300 signed up. Out of those 300, only 85 did anything at all. Out of those 85, only 35 were serious, and out of those 35, only 11 made me a millionaire."

Like Mark Yarnell, Bill Britt "worked the numbers." Lesson: Your success is directly related to the degree to which you are willing to work to find others like yourself who are committed to succeed. Mark Yarnell's odds were one out of 200. Bill Britt's odds were 11 out of 1200.

Would you be willing to work with 200 people to find one who will make you $10,000 per month? Or work with 1200 people to become a millionaire? I hope you would.

It's easier when you have some idea of the odds, but you won't know the odds until after you achieve a considerable degree of success. If you get 50-100 people to sign up, and haven't found one serious person yet, you can either give up and assume the business doesn't work. Or you can realize that you need to send more "Interested Visitors" to your website(s).


How High is the Success Threshold?

An important challenge for wannabe online moneymakers is that the success threshold for succeeding online may be considerably higher than for succeeding offline. (You may be a "9-Inch Frog" in the offline world, while being a "4-Inch Frog" in the online world!)

You see, in the offline world you typically work at a job in a company. You have a boss or manager who tells you what to do. The company has standard operating procedures for just about anything. You have a job description and access to operating manuals. Other people have developed procedures that work and you just have to perform them. Generally, you're not paid to think, but to do what you're told.

On the Internet, whether you're trying to make money online, or many other activities, you're typically on your own, faced with virtually infinite choices. Most of the actions you could take are wrong and don't work. When you take ineffective actions, "nothing" happens -- no feedback. How do you learn what works and what doesn't?

Another difference is that in a job typically the "distance between action and result" is short. If you flip a burger and it falls to the floor, you can see what's happening and correct your action. An associate may grab you by the arm and show you how to flip a burger. A boss may tell you: "Next time you drop a burger, you're fired!" So it's an environment where it's easy to learn. You tend to get quick and useful feedback.

On the Internet you have virtually unlimited options on how to promote something. Maybe you send out a few thousand emails, buy some "guaranteed visitors," use some kind of blaster to "reach 7 million hot prospects," etc. Typically, you get no sales or signups. If you do get a few signups, they all turn out to be duds. This an environment where it's much more difficult to learn and succeed. You often don't get much useful feedback.

Some animals, raised in captivity, never learn to survive in the wild, if they are released. Similarly, some people "raised in jobs" may never learn to succeed on the "wild Internet", or with running their own business.

Understanding the nature of the "self-improvement" industry may be useful. You may want to check out the book SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless by Steve Salerno. ("SHAM" = Self-Help and Actualization Movement.) This is how a typical "self-help guru" becomes a millionaire:

  1. He spends "5 years interviewing 500 of the most successful people in the world."
  2. He identifies the "8 most important success principles" and calls them "the straight 8."
  3. Bill Gates told him that "getting good ideas" is the secret of his success, so one of the "guru's 8 principles" is to "get good ideas."
  4. The "guru" makes little or no attempt to establish cause-and-effect relationships between people applying his "principles" and the results they achieve. (As an example, a "success guru" might discover that "successful people are confident, so improving confidence must be an important success principle." But what if it's success that causes confidence, rather than the other way round?)
  5. The "guru" makes no attempt to provide any scientific evidence that anyone who applies his "straight 8" actually becomes more successful.
  6. The "guru" develops great presentation skills. He gets companies to pay him $10,000, $20,000, or more to present his "straight 8" to their employees.
  7. Because the "guru" has great presentation skills, the company people have little or no idea what "causes success," and they're all somewhat gullible, everyone agrees that "it was a great presentation and they learned valuable lessons from the guru." (Gullibility may be an important MBI for some.)
"You might expect that extraordinary results like these would lead Alan Wurzel [CEO, Circuit City] to discuss the brilliant decisions he made. But when we asked him to list the top five factors in his company's transformation, ranked by importance, Wurzel gave a surprising answer: The number one factor was luck." -- Jim Collins (From Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't)

Suppose you get a pain in your side and go to your doctor. He says, "After my medical training, I spent 5 years interviewing the 500 healthiest people in the world. I identified 8 factors they all had in common. Just implement these 8 things and you'll get healthy, too!"

You ask, "But doctor, how can you make a prescription without having examined me, and with no diagnosis? Shouldn't you find out specifically what's wrong with me and prescribe something to cure it?"

There's a flock of "Internet gurus" selling information on "How to Make Money Online." What if their main abilities are presentation skills, getting "testimonials" from their buddies, marketing online, and compiling "products" with fancy "covers" -- but content that is useless to practically all their gullible customers? If so, would they be the online equivalent of the offline "straight-8 guru" and the rest of the SHAM industry?

The brutal REALITY is that you could spend years buying and studying both online and offline "success books and packages," and never make any significant progress toward rising above your success threshold...

So what do you do? Answer: Check over this page, find something useful and appropriate for you, and implement it! If you PERSIST, you will eventually rise above the success threshold -- even if it's higher than you now think!

However, "EMOTIONAL SENSITIVITY" may be a personal constraint for you. If so, you may need to start with the "One-Small-Step Booster."


Identifying and Overcoming Personal Constraints

Great book #1: The FlipSide: Break Free of the Behaviors That Hold You Back by Flip Flippen

"Is it possible that something other than your talents, abilities, personality, or academic achievements will define how far you go in life? Could it be that the things that hold you back -- or constrain you -- are a far more reliable indicator of your success than any skills or talent you may possess? And if it is possible to identify whatever those personal constraints are and break free of them, do you believe that you could soar to new heights in your life? Would you choose to break free of your personal constraints if I could show you what and where they are and how they are affecting you?"

"We have been able to prove year after year, with thousands of success stories, that people who actively choose to identify and remove their personal constarints will fare better than those who do not. It boils down to physics: the lighter the load you carry, the farther you can go. This final law provides hope: you can do something about your current situation that will also have an impact on your future."

"In my work as a psychotherapist, I have two important tasks I must accomplish for every patient: first, I must make a diagnosis and second, I must prescribe the proper treatment. The diagnosis of any situation is critical. If the diagnosis is wrong, then it is difficult -- if not impossible -- to prescribe the correct treatment."

"Personal constraints are just that. They are personal, and they constrain you in many ways. Some are from birth, others from your childhood experiences, and still others you pick up -- like dangerous hitchhikers -- along life's unpredictable road. But no matter where your personal constraints come from, they all have one thing in common: unless you can find and remove them, they will certainly hold you back from your greatest plans, hopes, and aspirations in life."

The FlipSide includes a questionnaire to help readers identify their constraints, and specific approaches to overcome certain constraints.

Great book #2: The Hoffman Process: The World-Famous Technique That Empowers You to Forgive Your Past, Heal Your Present, and Transform Your Future by Tim Lawrence.

The The Hoffman Process addresses a wider range of personal constraints than The FlipSide. Bob Hoffman's identification of the "Negative Love Syndrome" may be particularly important for some people. See Hoffman Institute.

Great book #3: Addicted to Unhappiness: Free yourself from moods and behaviors that undermine relationships, work, and the life you want by Martha Heineman Pieper, PhD and William J. Pieper, MD. The Piepers' identification of "Addiction to Unhappiness" seems closely related to Hoffman's "Negative Love Syndrome."

Great book #4: Primal Healing: Access the Incredible Power of Feelings to Improve Your Health by Dr. Arthur Janov. Many people are to some extent "lived by their early imprints." Some people suffer from "helplessness imprints" that pervade much of their lives. This is described by Dr. Arthur Janov in Chapter 4: "The Imprint: How It Runs Our Lives."

Helplessness imprints can be described by phrases like: "No one wants me"; "They never wanted me"; "What's the use of trying"; "I'm all alone"; "Nobody loves me"; "Trying to get love is useless"; "I don't want to work anymore"; "I've done enough"; "I am not going to do it"; "I don't get any help"; "Nothing I do is worth anything"; "There is something wrong with me"; "Nothing can save me"; "I'm not worth s_ _t for anything"; etc. However, these are shallow descriptions of the tips of icebergs. The imprints include feelings, emotions, and pain stored as deep memories in the "whole human system."

Deep imprints, including those related to helplessness, impact the whole human system: mind, brain, and body. Quotes from Primal Healing:

"To feel defeated is real -- a real reaction to a real event of being deprived, any struggle at birth due to a heavy anesthetic administered to the mother, not some neurotic aberration."

"The imprint is really an ensemble of reactions that is impressed simultaneously into the whole system."

"Chronic high blodd pressure is a good example of how memory lives within our brain system -- it is an expression of a memory, a neurological imprint, which manifests physiologically."

"Hopelessness, helplessness, despair, and resignation can be imprinted through diminished oxygen [at birth]..."

"The more painkillers a woman takes during labor, the more likely her child will be to abuse drugs or alcohol later on."

"In trying to kill the pain, we are sometimes forced into behaviors that ruin our lives."

"For true and lasting change, deep levels of the brain must change physiologically, enabling key structures within the brain to recalibrate to optimal, healthy levels."

"It is not possible to truly get well by way of some easy, feel-good process, which is what the selling point is behind meditation, hypnosis, acupuncture, and all cognitive therapies."

Chapter 10 of Primal Healing is titled "Why We Have to Relive in Order to Get Well." You can't just talk or think yourself out of the effects of imprints; to cure yourself you have to relive them.


How to Monetize a Website

The basic idea is to set up a website that attracts traffic (visitors) from search engines and from links from other sites. Traffic can also be generated by a wide variety of methods, including email advertising, pay-per-click advertising, traffic-exchange programs, banner-exchange programs, banners and classified ads on other websites, articles on other sites, ezine ads, links from profiles on social network sites, etc.

"Monetizing" a website refers to "converting" its traffic into money earnings. This can be done by attracting targeted visitors and selling them products and services. Another way is to have advertisements, e.g., from Google Adsense, and to attract targeted visitors who click on the ads.

My own favorite way is to create a webpage visitors can use to earn a great deal of money. In taking the steps that will earn money, I automatically also earn a little!

Several people have become millionaires selling their own products and services. (Mark Joyner of Simpleology fame is a great example!) If you can spend "X" to market your website and then profit by "1.5X" from the products and/or services you sell... then you've opened the door to virtually unlimited wealth!

In general, I prefer to provide my information free of charge as contents of webpages like this one. This tends to result in traffic from search engines and from links on other websites. This traffic can be monetized as described on this page.

A website can also be used to generate affiliate sales. Mark Joyner is one of the most competent online marketers. Not only does he provide great marketing expertise, but you can also learn a great deal just by studying how he markets. Be sure to check out how the items under "Other Simpleology Products & Courses" are being marketed.

Before Simpleology, Joyner started a program called Free Agent Path. Part of the program provided members with training to enable them to become financially independent. The program didn't work and was eventually abandoned. As a result, Joyner researched teaching and learning methods extensively. He learned a great deal about what to provide to people so they can train themselves to become more successful. See Simpleology 101: The Simple Science of Getting What You Want.

To succeed with the kind of strategy I outline on this page (or to succeed in general), you may need to acquire knowledge and skills that enable you to "rise above your success threshold." You may be able to apply Simpleology 101 to do that.

However, it's possible that certain "Make-or-Break Issues" (MBIs) are keeping you stuck below your success threshold. An example could be depression/helplessness. There may be something you need to handle first in order to maximize your progress. See also "One Factor."

In a sense, you may have to do some work to "monetize yourself!" Make yourself more competent to generate money!

Another way to "monetize yourself" is to get lucky! See Success Principle #6. Get Lucky!


John Reese and Shoemoney

Discussion between Internet marketing genius John Reese and top blogger Jeremy Shoemaker on the topic of monetizing websites.
(See the full playlist: parts 1 to 12)


Maximize Your Time Usage!

[Continues from above...] Another way to "monetize yourself" is to make better use of your time!

"The Only Thing That Makes Any Positive Difference In Your Life!" -- Gary C. Halbert

Extracted and edited from The Gary Halbert Letter -- Copyright © 2003 Gary C. Halbert. All Rights Reserved (Emphases and comments added):

...I am about to illuminate something you really, really need to think about. Listen: In only 365 days from today, one more year will have passed into history. No matter who you are, 365 days is all you are going to get in the next year. By the way, that comes out to 8,760 hours... or 525,600 minutes... or... 31,536,000 seconds.

Now, let's say you are rich as hell and you are willing to pay dearly to have more time in the coming year than other people. Let's say you want just 10 extra minutes and you are willing to pay one million dollars for each of those 10 minutes.

You can't buy them. They're not for sale.

You couldn't even buy one extra second... for 100 billion dollars. Time is not for sale. Not at any price. During the next year, nobody is going to have more time than you and nobody (except those who go to "Check-out City") is going to have less.

So what? Well, here is the "so what" of it: The difference from where you are right now, today... and where... you will be 1-year from today, depends on one thing and one thing only. It depends on...

What You Do With Those 8,760 Hours You've Got To Work With In The Next Year

What you think about isn't going to produce any change whatsoever. What you plan isn't going to create any change either. How you feel isn't going to make a difference. What you read; what you learn; what you study; what you discover... none of these things... none whatsoever... is going to make a scintilla of difference about where you are 1-year from today. Get this straight in your head: The only thing (except for pure happenstance) that is going to make any difference at all in your life... is...

What You Do!

[Frederick Mann: What you DO is primary. How you FEEL has a major impact on what you do and how well you do it -- see "Raise Your Mood Level!" An important principle is to perform actions that produce LEVERAGE. You can do what makes you more EFFECTIVE and EFFICIENT. What you do today can enable you to produce increasingly more in your future. What you READ, STUDY, LEARN, and DISCOVER can raise the quality of what you "Do!" in your future. What you THINK and PLAN can also improve what you "Do!".]

So, what are you going to do with those 8,760 hours you've got to work with in the coming year? Actually, what you are going to do with a lot of those hours is outside your control. For example: You've almost got to spend approximately 2,920 of those hours sleeping. True, you could sleep less... but... that will almost certainly be counter-productive. The most recent research indicates the vast majority of Americans need MORE than eight hours of sleep per day... and yet... most of us get less.

Which, of course, makes us a nation of people who are sleep deprived... and... sleep deprived people suffer from fuzzy thinking, make bad decisions, and are more at risk for all types of health problems.

Whatever you do, don't try to become more productive by getting less sleep. That tactic will backfire on you...

...After deducting the time we need to spend sleeping, we're down to 5,840 hours to work with in the coming year. Let's say you are neither rich, retired nor retarded. That means you've got to spend a significant amount of time earning enough fungolas to support yourself and your family. To do this, let's say you work the proverbial 40 hours per week. Also, you've got to get ready for work, get to work and get home from work. Some of you have a long commute, some are lucky enough to work at home... but... I'm going to decide arbitrarily, we need to add an average of 10 hours per week to get ready, and get to and from work. Let's give you a two week yearly vacation... which means... you are going to use up 2,500 of your hours (50 hours per week times 50 weeks per year) on work-related activities.

We are now down to 3,340 hours we've got left in the coming year.

Ah, but we ain't at the end of our deductions yet. No Sir. But rather than belabor the obvious, let's make one sizable deduction for what I will designate as "Absolute Necessities of Life." This might include playing with your kids, giving time and support to your spouse and friends, brushing your teeth, shopping for groceries, getting your car repaired, shaving, taking some "down time" to let yourself recharge and so on. The time necessary to take care of the "Absolute Necessities of Life" will, of course, vary from individual to individual... but... I can't even imagine this taking anyone (who actually has a life) less than 3 to 4 hours per day so... this means... we're going to have to whack off at least another 2,000 hours from the stash of time we're allotted for the coming year.

I'm going to stop with these deductions. You've got the idea by now, don't you Boopsie?

Let us inch a bit closer to the truth: You really do not have 8,760 hours to decide what to do with in the coming year. In truth, with so many of your hours already "spoken for," you probably don't even have 1,000 "discretionary" hours to decide what to do with in the next year. That gives you something like 2 hours and 42 minutes per day with which you have to work to change your life for the better.

And, I feel certain, most of you have lives so jam-packed that... the truth is... you only have a fraction of even that small amount of "discretionary" time each day. And, I bet whatever amount of discretionary time you do have, I bet you use almost none of it to seriously advance the quality of your life. And, if you care... if you truly care... about elevating your status and achieving your goals...

This Has Got To Stop!

You simply must use your discretionary time intelligently... or else... you don't have a rat's ass of a chance of getting anywhere that's worth being.

So, what do you do first? I'm gonna tell you but, before I do, I want to make an important observation: Many people hate it when I write newsletters like this. These readers don't want to get the fundamentals right... no... they want to skip right to the "details." But your life is already filled with details... none of which... are doing doodley squat to enhance your life. You cannot intelligently decide which details you should really attend to... unless... you are clear and accurate about what your guiding fundamentals must be.

Here's something else: Success is not complicated. It is simple. The real answers are... so simple... they are downright corny. But simple does not mean easy. Running the Boston Marathon is very simple. All you have to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other for 26+ miles.

Simple as pie. Hard as hell.

I want you to be one of the "Masters of the Millennium." I want you to achieve more in the year 2,000 than you have achieved in all the previous years of your life. That means you've got a lot of details to attend to in the year 2,000... plus... you've got to attend to the right details. I've got less than two months to help you get this in laser-sharp focus. Let's see if I can get a commitment from you. Just for approximately the next 30 days. Just from the time you read this letter and the time you read next month's. This commitment will cost you maybe $20.00 or $30.00 and will take less than five minutes of your time for each of the next 30-days.

Here's all I'm going to ask you to do: Go to a local drug store, a Radio Shack or wherever and get yourself an el cheapo, microcassette tape recorder and 30 of those little bitty microcassettes. [Of course nowadays you could just use a voice-recorder app on your mobile-phone - no need to buy or carry anything extra with you!]

Keep your el cheapo recorder with you all the time and use one microcassette each day to keep a "time diary." Use it approximately once every hour of your waking hours. Your audio entries should only take seconds. They should be something like this:

"2:15 to 3:10: Had cavity filled by Doc Megapain."
"3:10 to 3:40: Drove back to office."
"3:40 to 5:30: Returned phone calls at work from customers with routine questions."
Etc., etc., etc.

That's all I want you to do. I know, I know. You're way ahead of me. You already know what this is all about. You already know the basics of my evil scheme to change your life for the better.

Bullsh...

You don't have a clue. Please just trust me on this. All you've got to lose is $20 or $30 and a couple or three hours out of one lousy month.

All you've got to gain is everything you've ever lusted for.

Look, stop thinking you're so damn sophisticated. So damn smart. So far above doing a simple exercise like this. Let me tell you something...

You Don't Know Sh..!
Give Me A Chance To Help You!

Sincerely,
Gary C. Halbert


First, get going in a Good Direction! (Get On Target!) Second, Increase Your Speed!

Gary Halbert: Gun-to-the-Head Marketing

Get on Target! Direction is More Important than Speed!

Halbert, one of the greatest marketers ever, describes how he couldn't pay the bills because he spent the money on postage. Then he essentially asked: "If my situation were such that I would be beheaded if my next mailpiece didn't work, what would I write?" That was the catalyst that enabled him to "switch to success." Virtually in an instant he shifted from failure to making a huge success of his life. You may be able to do the same!

His major realization was that he had to be "on target!" Sell something people want. Better still: Sell something people can't do without! Halbert has also written that, "The best market is a hungry crowd."


Make Your Marketing Remarkable!

Seth Godin: "How to Stand Out and Get Noticed!"

In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to ignore the ordinary stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones. And early adopters, not the mainstream's bell curve, are the new sweet spot of the market.

Why does Seth Godin say: "Safe is Risky?"


The above is a brief introduction to "Success". Much more "success information" can be found in the various articles, reports, and books at this website. In particular, see the "Get-Real Success System" (GRSS).


Index | Parent Index | Build Freedom: Archive

Disclaimer - Copyright - Contact

Online: buildfreedom.org - terrorcrat.com - mind-trek.com